Rhys Chatham: Angel Moves Too Fast to See: Selected Works 1971-1989 : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Composer-guitarist-trumpeter Rhys Chatham (above) was virtually born into the avant-garde. A piano tuner for Glenn Gould and a student of minimalism daddy La Monte Young, Chatham prowled New York in the No Wave era with future members of Sonic Youth and Swans before blooming in the 1980s with the works for massed jangle that dominate this three-CD set. "Two Gongs," from 1971, is just that: an hour of oceanic clang. More immediate and uplifting are the Spartan-riff charge of 1982's "Drastic Classicism," the surging Television-like phosphorescence of 1985's "Die Donnergštter" and the cinematic wasp song of the 1989 title symphony.

DAVID FRICKE
(From RS 922, May 15, 2003)